Percy Williams Bridgman
Percy Williams Bridgman (21 April 1882 – 20 August 1961) was an American physicist who won the 1946 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the physics of high pressures. He also wrote extensively on the scientific method and on other aspects of the philosophy of science. Biography Bridgman entered Harvard University in 1900, and studied physics through to his Ph.D.. From 1910 until his retirement, he taught at Harvard, becoming a professor in 1919. In 1905, he began investigating the properties of matter under high pressure. A machinery malfunction led him to modify his pressure apparatus; the result was a new device enabling him to create pressures eventually exceeding 100,000 kgf/cm² (10 GPa). This was a huge improvement over previous machinery, which could achieve pressures of only 3,000 kgf/cm² (0.3 GPa). This new apparatus led to an abundance of new findings, including on the effect of pressure on electrical resistance, and on the liquid and solid states. Bridgman is also known for his studies of electrical conduction in metals and properties of crystals. He developed the Bridgman seal and is the eponym for Bridgman's thermodynamic equations. Bridgman made many improvements to his high pressure apparatus over the years, and unsuccessfully attempted the synthesis of diamond many times. His writings on the philosophy of science advocated operationalism, and he coined the term operational definition. He was also one of the 11 signatories to the Russell-Einstein Manifesto. Death Bridgman committed suicide by gunshot after living with metastatic cancer for some time. His suicide note read in part, "It isn't decent for society to make a man do this thing himself. Probably this is the last day I will be able to do it myself."Nuland, Sherwin. How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter. Vintage Press, 1995. ISBN 0679742441. Bridgman's words have been quoted by many on both sides of the assisted suicide debate.Ayn Rand Institute discussion on assisted suicideEuthanasia Research and Guidance Organization Honors and awards Bridgman received Doctors, honoris causa from Stevens Institute (1934), Harvard (1939), Brooklyn Polytechnic (1941), Princeton (1950), Paris (1950), and Yale (1951). He received the Bingham Medal (1951) from the Society of Rheology, the Rumford Medal from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Cresson Medal from the Franklin Institute, the Roozeboom Medal from the Royal Academy of Sciences of the Netherlands, and the Comstock Prize of the National Academy of Sciences. He was a member of the American Physical Society and was its President in 1942. He was also a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the National Academy of Sciences. He was a Foreign Member of the Royal Society and Honorary Fellow of the Physical Society of London. The Percy W. Bridgman House, in Massachusetts, is a U.S. National Historic Landmark designated in 1975. and Bibliography * 1914. A Complete Collection of Thermodynamic Formulas (abstract). Phys. Rev. 3 (4): 273–281. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.3.273. http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PR/v3/i4/p273_1. * 1922. Dimensional Analysis. Yale University Press * 1925. A Condensed Collection of Thermodynamics Formulas. Harvard University Press * 1927. The Logic of Modern Physics. Beaufort Books. Online excerpt. * 1934. Thermodynamics of Electrical Phenomena in Metals and a Condensed Collection of Thermodynamic Formulas. MacMillan. * 1936. The Nature of Physical Theory. John Wiley & Sons. * 1938. The Intelligent Individual and Society. MacMillan. * 1941. The Nature of Thermodynamics. Harper & Row, Publishers. * 1952. The Physics of High Pressure. G. Bell. * 1956. "Probability, Logic and ESP", Science, vol. 123, p. 16, January 6, 1956. * 1959. The Way Things Are. Harvard Univ. Press. * 1962. A Sophisticate's Primer of Relativity. Routledge & Kegan Paul. * 1964. '' Collected experimental papers''. Harvard University Press. * 1980. Reflections of a Physicist. Arno Press; ISBN 040512595X See also * Percy W. Bridgman House References Further reading * Walter, Maila L., 1991. Science and Cultural Crisis: An Intellectual Biography of Percy Williams Bridgman (1882-1961). Stanford Univ. Press. * External links * Bridgman's Nobel Prize website Category:1882 births Category:1961 deaths Category:American Nobel laureates Category:American physicists Category:Experimental physicists Category:Rheologists Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Harvard University faculty Category:Nobel laureates in Physics Category:Scientists who committed suicide Category:Thermodynamicists Category:Suicides by firearm in New Hampshire ar:بيرسي وليمز برجمان bn:পার্সি উইলিয়াম্‌স ব্রিজম্যান bg:Пърси Уилямс Бриджман ca:Percy Williams Bridgman cs:Percy Williams Bridgman de:Percy Williams Bridgman et:Percy Williams Bridgman es:Percy Williams Bridgman eo:Percy Williams Bridgman fa:پرسی ویلیام بریجمن fr:Percy Williams Bridgman gl:Percy Williams Bridgman ko:퍼시 윌리엄스 브리지먼 hi:पर्सी विलियम्स ब्रिजमन hr:Percy Williams Bridgman io:Percy Williams Bridgman id:Percy Williams Bridgman it:Percy Williams Bridgman sw:Percy Bridgman ht:Percy Williams Bridgman ku:Percy Williams Bridgman mr:पर्सी विल्यम्स ब्रिजमन nl:Percy Williams Bridgman ja:パーシー・ブリッジマン no:Percy Williams Bridgman oc:Percy Williams Bridgman pnb:پرسی برجمین pl:Percy Williams Bridgman pt:Percy Williams Bridgman ro:Percy Williams Bridgman ru:Бриджмен, Перси Уильямс sk:Percy Williams Bridgman sl:Percy Williams Bridgman fi:Percy Williams Bridgman sv:Percy W. Bridgman tr:Percy Williams Bridgman uk:Персі Бріджмен zh:珀西·威廉斯·布里奇曼 [[enWP|Percy Williams Bridgman}}